The use of card processing equipment for processing plastic cards is well known. In such equipment, a plastic card to be processed is input into the processing equipment, at least one processing operation is performed on the input card, and the card is then output from the processing equipment. The processing operation(s) performed on the plastic card by known processing equipment includes one or more of printing, laminating, magnetic stripe encoding, programming of a chip embedded in the card, and the like.
The processing equipment is often configured in the form of a desktop unit which, to limit the size of the unit, typically perform only one processing operation on the plastic card, although the equipment may perform multiple card processing operations. An example of a popular desktop plastic card processing unit is a desktop plastic card printer which performs monochromatic or multi-color printing on a card that is input into the printer. Examples of desktop units that perform printing are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,426,283; 5,762,431; 5,886,726; 6,315,283; 6,431,537; and 6,536,758. Of these, U.S. Pat. No. 5,426,283 describes a unit that performs chip programming in addition to printing.
In plastic card desktop printers, the print mechanism is typically limited to printing on only one side of the plastic card at any one time. In order to permit printing on both sides of the card, some desktop printers include a duplex mechanism or reorienting mechanism that flips the card 180 degrees after the card has been printed on one side and the card is then returned to the printing mechanism to print on the opposite side of the card. Examples of desktop printers that include a duplex mechanism for flipping a card 180 degrees are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,806,999; 5,771,058; 5,768,143; and 6,279,901.
Moreover, many desktop plastic card processing units are configured to process a single card at any one time. Therefore, the processing of the card must be finished, and then the card output from, or nearly output from, the unit before processing can begin on the next card. However, to avoid the need to feed each card by hand into the desktop unit, the unit typically includes some form of card input hopper which holds a number of cards and which is configured to feed the cards one-by-one into the unit.
There is a continuing need for improvements to the reorienting mechanisms and to the input hoppers of plastic card processing equipment.